track rod end not going back in

are you putting it in from the correct side?

Hey mrcheerful

Yes. I loosened the nut and separated the balljoint but I didn't remove the bolt completely from the steering arm. Definitely going in from the correct side....

You removed it completely from the steering arm? Erm, unless I'm very much mistaken, you didn't want to do that....

No. I said "I didn't remove the bolt completely from the steering arm". What's wrong with removing it anyway? How would you go about replacing the track rod end without removing it from the steering arm?

We could have told you that and saved you a £30 tracking fee.

Didn't need to remove the hub to suspension strut

Clean up the threads first. And then patience.

Sorry, let me explain better. The track rod end is still attached to the track rod and the locknut is still in place so I don't think I'll need to have the tracking checked afterwards. I have loosened the nut holding the track rod end to the steering arm and the track rod end has now popped up about 1/2" from the steering arm. The nut is still in place. Despite lots of fiddling and swearing I am unable to get the track rod end to sit down properly on the steering arm again. I cannot tighten the nut as it just spins the bolt it is on.

Chris

Well, you'd have a job, but that's not what you're trying to do - you said that it's to enable you to remove a driveshaft.

First off - I'm not aware of any bolts going into the steering arm - what car is it, and are you sure you're not getting confused with the bolt (and nut) that goes into the lower suspension arm, and fit in to a sort of groove (bad way to describe it really) in the bit of the balljoint that sticks into the lower arm, IYSWIM ??

Because if that's what you're trying to do, then it's often not critical which way around the nut and bolt go as long as they're tightened to the correct torque, and things can be a bit stiff so you might need to use a hammer to tap it through, but the crucial thing is to adjust the height of the balljoint (and hence the whole strut) entering the arm by use of a bar acting as a lever, so the groove/cutting in the balljoint lines up properly. A bit hard to explain on here, but I hope that makes sense.

Or it could be some design I'm not familiar with where there is a bolt going into the steering arm, in which case I'm talking s**te.

AHA. Just so we get everything right...you just undid the nut on the trackrod end and popped it out the hole it goes into on the hub.

Easy one this. Get a G clamp. Clamp from the back side of the trackrod end (the opposite end to the threaded bit) and the flange with the hole it goes into making sure you leave enough room to get the nut on and a spanner in.

If a G clamp isn't handy or you can't find anywhere to clamp it, get some rope, wrap it round the track rod end, where you adjust the tracking, and get someone to pull on it, thus forcing the trackrod end into the hole, whilst you tighten the nut.

Erm, if it didn't, how would the steering rack connect to the wheels? the bolt he is talking about has the balljoint on the other end (I think)

Make sure that the bolt on the trackrod end is point straight up, I presume the wheel is off and it's jacked up at that side? in which case you can "steer" that side by hand, offer the joint up to the steering arm and wiggle the hub around until the bolt slides in.

Clamp the trackrod end to the steering arm and tighten up the bolt (that stops the balljoint turning with the nut)

Hope that helps.

Now how much fun with that did I have the other day LOL, what I ended up doing was tapping it upwards with a hammer and then clamping the whole lot. The bolt then tightened up fine, otherwise it just span the whole joint :(

Right, now I understand, you can't do up the nut, the taper bit just spins.

This usually happens because the nut/stud is rusted/damaged or dirty

I would use an air wrench to shock it into submission, using forward and back till the nut would come off easily, then use a nice new nut.

Since you probably don't have an air wrench available, you need to jam the track rod end taper tightly back into its matching taper in the steering arm, firstly clean the taper with petrol or carb cleaner or similar so there is no slippy oily stuff on it, first try after that would be a mild whack to see if it will stick in its taper, then gently try to do up or undo the nut. If it still spins, then you need more force, I have sometimes used a car jack to push the tapers together, a valve spring compressor might do, g-clamp etc.

If all fails, then cut the nut off and buy a new track rod end.

mrcheerful

Haynes said I needed to disconnect the track rod end from the steering arm in order to get the driveshaft out of the hub. Turns out I didn't. Unbolting the hub from the bottom of the shock creates enough space to get the driveshaft out but by the time I found this out I'd already loosened the nut holding the track rod end to the steering arm. I've now replaced the gearbox, put the driveshafts back in and all is well except that I can't attach the track rod end back onto the steering arm.

It's the OH's 1997 micra. There's a threaded bolt sticking out of the bottom of the track rod end which goes through a hole in the steering arm, then a nut goes on the bottom to hold them together. I can't get the track rod end to sit down on the steering arm properly - there's about a 1/2" gap between the two. It's like the bolt doesn't want to go all the way through the hole.

AAAAARRRRRGHHHH!

It's soooooo hard trying to explain it's making my head hurt. I'm sure if you could see it you'd just say something like "oh yeah - you need to twist it like this..." and it would be sorted :D

Cheers for your help / patience....

Chris

The message from "bodge boy" contains these words:

Oh, /that/! Two ways of doing it...

Use a plain nut first and do it up good and tight, then take it off and put the nylock on.

or

Get someone really fat (I'm busy) to lean very hard on the rod-end to push the taper into the seat. Use a lever if it goes in from underneath.

Dammit - spent too long typing and now you all understand :P

Right - clean everything, line up the taper/bolt thingy with the hole in the steering arm, hit it in with a mallet and clamp it tight enough to stop it spinning while I do up the nut.

Sweet!

Thanks all :D

But that "bolt" isn't going into the steering arm, it's going into the suspension strut/hub carrier assembly. In fact, scrub the hub carrier, that's effectively a separate bit that bolts into the suspension strut - it goes into the strut itself.

Erm, pointing up? Most I've seen point down. Mind you, thinking about it, I might have seen some that approach from the bottom and point up...

Just one small point - I may be the only one, but I was getting very confused by you calling the bit that the bolt bit of track rod end goes into the steering arm. AFAIK it's not called that. I'd have said that the steering arm is the arm that goes from the rack out to the strut, and the bit it goes into is part of the strut itself.

Heh - like I said, I think a lot of confusion's arisen from calling something not very arm-shaped an "arm" :-)

AstraVanMan ( snipped-for-privacy@whataloadofforeskinbollocks.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

You mean the track rod? That's why the end of it's the track rod end...

No, sorry, my fault for using the word "bolt". I meant the threaded taper thingy sticking out the bottom of the track rod end. It goes down through a hole in the steering arm and a nut screws on from underneath to hold it in place. The track rod end doesn't connect to the suspension strut at all (at least not on this car) it connects to the steering arm on the hub carrier....

I think....

not very good with car terminology :P

perhaps not the steering arm then?

i thought the steering arm was the long thin metal bit which sticks out from the hub to give the track rod some leverage to move the wheel?